Long exposure is a very special way of bringing motion to our still image. Digital photography through open the doors to using this technique easier and more productively as we can see our results instantaneously. In the beginning, we’d lower our ISO to the lowest possible setting and close our lens down as far as it would go. That wouldn’t really get us down into a shutter speed of seconds let alone minutes. There is a really cool and simple Multiple Exposure method to blur water. These all work but to get to the really long exposure time of minutes, we need a filter. Up until recently the filters available left their own residue in our photos, a color cast. Neutral density material is tricky to make and finally, a company has made a breakthrough producing a super clean ND material and filter!
DC-3 / C-47 captured by D850 / 18f3.5 AF
The “new” Breakthrough filters are really, truly, fantastic! Both of these photos they were in use and you can see for yourself how clean those grays are (not cleaned up in post). The top photo I did a long exposure along with multiple exposure in camera to get that effect. The bottom photo, first I used a Breakthrough step up ring (which are spectacular!) to attach my 82mm 6x Breakthrough to the 18f2.8. Then Mother Nature worked her magic and for some reason, the clouds in the center barely moved while all the clouds around the frame blurred. I only got one like this in the series I took, but I love it! I want to mention that Breakthrough takes their filters seriously! The filter mounts are made of brass and have a knurl so you can GRAB them and TURN them even with gloves on! Now you are paying for this quality but IMHO they are worth twice the price. Check them out!
We’re taking a play right out of Hollywood playbook to bring the night to day, romance to dull. Lighthouses are a very romantic symbol, guarding our coastline and welcoming home our seafarers. Their light reaches out to sea to guide lost souls back to safety. Their very name contains the essence of their being, light …. house. So in our photographs, that light that emanates from the house is very much part of their story. There are times when we can capture that magical beam, there are times we cannot. It’s those times we cannot that now we can!
What you see below is the before and the top, the possibility. Getting to the possibility was real simple. First. The Coquille River Light hasn’t operated since 1932 so the only way to bring its light back to life is in post. It started by shooting with the D850 / 70-200f4 AFS leaving room for a beam to be included in post. Shooting while the sun was still up yet mellowed by a thin layer of clouds was essential. With all that in place, we turn to Hollywood and bring our scene into night by turning it blue and then, well, follow this recipe and you have light. But never lose sight that the light all begins from within you!
The Grand Tetons … oh my what a gorgeous part of our wild heritage! I’ve truly not spent enough time in this gorgeous locale so Sharon & I are heading back in 2018 and want to take eight of our best friends along. While it might be a “landscape” workshop don’t think for a moment we won’t stop for critters like … MOOSE (go figure)! We’re targeting fall color to put up against those majestic granite spires and throw in some moody clouds for some amazing photo opps. We will of course head to some of the iconic Grand Teton locales and some you’ve perhaps never heard of. And simply can’t forget the amazing breakfast awaiting us to warm up after that glorious sunrise. We simply can’t wait!
The dates are 8-13 Oct, 2018 and the price is $1895. That price includes transportation from the Jackson Hole airport and back again at the end of the week. It also includes entrance into the park, instruction in the field and digital darkroom for just eight shooters (sorry, no spouces). Lodging & meals are not included (but rooms have been secured for our adventure). If this sounds like the photographic inspiration you’re looking for, please give Sharon a call 760.924.8632 (9-5PST M-F). Looking forward to sharing this with you!
The emails have been flooding in asking me about my workflow since last weeks LR update. My workflow hasn’t changed much since 2015 when I wrote this post I linked on my workflow. I still use Photomechanic. Some have asked for my settings/preferences in Photomechanic which you’ll find all in the video. Just pause the video when the various settings/preferences boxes appear and copy the setting if desired. Hope this helps.
Fog is what … besides being “a thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth’s surface that obscures or restricts visibility” or “something that obscures and confuses a situation or someone’s thought processes,” a great landscape asset! Fog adds mystery and suspense to our photographs that taps the imagination. Whenever your photograph taps the viewer’s imagination, you win! Fog can also bring a feeling of disaster or death, a cold emotion hard to shake. One thing about fog you can’t escape is that everyone has experienced it so they have a relationship to it. So in our photographs can we use those emotions and experiences with fog to intensify the power of fog when there really isn’t that much fog?
Many turn to something in the digital darkroom like the Fog filter in Luminar to bring “fog” to their photograph. I’ve done that and it works really, really well. But as you know I like to do things in camera whenever I can and this is no exception. What else do we have in our camera bag that can create “something that obscures and confuses a situation or someone’s thought processes“? How about a very shallow DoF? Shooting these images of f1.4 just adds to the mystery of the fog with a limited plane of focus. It’s a really simple technique you might try out next time. Works pretty darn well!
A long, long time ago I saw this amazing photo of Eastern Sierra fall color amongst a field of snow. It was a gorgeous photo and one I always wanted in my library. For years when I’m home, if it’s fall and there is the slightest chance of snow, off I go looking for that photo. We had our second snow in two weeks and while the color is days from the peak, with D850 in hand, off I chased.
No, I still have that photo I’m ever but I like what I did get. Why do I want white with fall color? It’s actually pretty simple, the white sets the fall color ablaze better than any saturation slider or plugin! The mind’s eye sees that white and with that powerful color anchor sets the color into the stratosphere! There is no trick camera settings, WB was the Auto Natural Auto and I shoot with my typical -1/3exp comp. The only trick is being there. Now you might be wondering about snow on 3 Oct, but we had three inches of snow just ten days ago, it’s how it is in the Sierra. But for my photograph I still of, it’s a matter of luck, capturing that gold and white.
